Postgame Notes & Quotes: Galaxy vs Earthquakes

LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce
ArenaOn the team’s
performance:“It was a poor start to the game. For whatever reason,
we came out and were sloppy for the first couple of minutes. We positioned
ourselves to chase the game. I tell you – I thought we played extremely well
tonight. We created chances. In the second half, we were absolutely dominating.
We created some chances; hit the post a couple of times. I’m told that one that
went off the post was a handball coming down. It happens. I don’t like coming
away with just a point at home, but given the circumstances and how we had to
scrap to get that point at home—I can’t complain. We certainly punished
ourselves at times, but on the whole we were good and incredibly dominating in
the second half. I hope it’s a lesson to our guys. We were sloppy at the start
of the game and it almost cost us more than a couple of points tonight. I’m
obviously satisfied getting an equalizer at the end of the game and I’m more
than satisfied with the way we attacked tonight and created chances. I’m
disappointed the way we came out and started the game and certainly not pleased
to give up a goal on the corner kick. Overall, there was an awful lot of good
things out there and a couple issues we have to sort out. We have 40 points at
this point of the season; it’s not the worst
thing.”

On
Leonardo:
“Leonardo was excellent tonight. What more can I say?
Gregg [Berhalter’s] been really good. Leonardo has a great game today. He was
really good. Perhaps, Gregg not being available to start attributed to the
sloppy organization of our backline at the start of the game. Leonardo was
excellent today.”

On getting players back from
injury:
“We have a lot of games ahead of us. There is no other
way to get some guys minutes. Kovalenko hasn’t played in a long time. We have no
other way to move him a long, to get him ready to play and contribute. Leonardo
is an excellent defender. We need to put him in there. There are going to be
situations in the next couple of months where we will need to rotate our center
backs, our holding midfielders and we have to play these players. There is no
other way to get them into position and we move forward to help our team. You
can’t have a situation where six weeks down the road we have a suspension, an
injury and we are expecting those guys to step on the field and not miss a beat.
They have to play. It kills me to have to take Gregg out because he’s been
excellent, but he understands the situation. It’s something we are trying to do
as we move our team forward.”

LA Galaxy midfielder Landon
DonovanOn the
result:
“It’s a game that we should have won. We were the better
team, we created a lot more chances. Getting scored on early was difficult to
come back from, but we did a good job and you had to think if anyone was going
to win it had to be us. Our resiliency was good, it was a good test for us,
something we haven’t dealt with a lot this year, going behind a goal and then a
goal again, so all in all it’s still okay and we can’t really be mad because we
played well and just had a few mistakes.”

On the team’s attacking
play:
“We had 22 shots, 15 shots in the second half, 10 corner
kicks, we hot the post – I think we created a lot good chances and on another
night we would have won.”

On the team’s mindset trailing by a
goal late on:
“We had a lot of pressure on them, we kept going and at
that point you keep hitting balls in front of the goal and you try to make a
play. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, but tonight it did happen. Tristan did a good
job of hitting a shot/cross hard at the goal, Edson did a good job to follow and
I was in the right place. When you put yourself in the right position, good
things happen.”

LA Galaxy forward Edson
BuddleOn his 12th goal of the
season:
“It went it. It was a tough ball. It skipped and was
bouncing. It went past Alan [Gordon] and a defender. I had to have a quick
reaction and get it on target. I was lucky to get a foot on to
it.”

On being behind a goal:
“We found ourselves behind early and showed some
character coming back. We didn’t want to be down a goal at home, but we
definitely wanted to play out the game. We had to create some positives out of
it.”

LA Galaxy defender Omar
GonzalezOn LA’s second
goal:
“I think that we started playing well, just passing the
ball and opening them up. We did a lot to come back and then we dug ourselves
again. Late in the game, we had reserves come in and they did great. We opened
them up and started getting crosses in, and got our second
goal.”

LA Galaxy midfielder Dema
KovalenkoOn returning to the
lineup:
“I’m not where I want to be. I know my
game and how I play, I don’t have the bite that I usually have but you know
what, it feels great just to be with the team again. Sometimes you feel a little
bit not part of it when you’re not playing and it had been difficult so I’m glad
to get in and get 60 minutes.”

On the team’s
depth:
“We said before the season, no matter who
we play, we want to win. So (Bruce) is going to put the best 11 on the field and
whoever he picks will be ready. (Bruce) has been here. We don’t 11 guys, we have
24 on the roster and today guys stepped in and did a good job. It’s not easy for
him to only dress 18, there are guys that are disappointed but that’s the
coaching staff’s job and they have to pick the best guys to give us a chance to
win.”

San
Jose Earthquakes Head Coach Frank
YallopOn tonight’s
game:
“I thought we defended great in the box to be honest. We
didn’t give them any looks. I think that a lot of the time if you try to break
out too quickly against a team like LA they will punish you with gaps so we made
sure we were compact and got our head or foot to everything. If you look at the
chances that they had it wasn’t the glaring chances they missed. I thought us on
the break, we could have broke a little better we could have scored another one.
They had a lot of pressure, a lot of balls went into the box and eventually it
kind of cracked.”

On the team’s performance:
“The team is getting a little settled we’ve got good
results. So what we are trying to do is now we are compact and strong as a unit
and now we are trying to add to that and be a good football team. I have
loosened my reigns a little bit on the team and let them express themselves a
little more and I think it has worked. I wanted to make sure this season that we
are difficult to beat and we have proved that and I think now we have only lost
four games out of fifteen and that is a good record in this league. It is not
easy to win games or as easy to lose but what is good is that now we are
starting to express ourselves a bit more and we have some good players. I
thought Bobby Convey was outstanding tonight, I thought Cornell Glen was
dangerous all evening, I thought the two center backs were brave and strong it
was a good performance by us.”

San
Jose Earthquakes Midfielder Bobby
ConveyOn tonight’s
game:
“Any points help us on the road. It is disappointing to
lose in the last 30-40 seconds after putting in so much work, but unfortunately
it did happen and a point against LA away is still good. Obviously everyone is
disappointed. We played pretty well and obviously we scored on our
chances.”

On his
goal:
“It was an open goal, it was early on. Cornell [Glen]
hit it towards the back post the goalie misplayed it and it is always good to
score two minutes into a game especially away. It gives everyone confidence and
it gives a team energy and I thought that it really set a good tone for the rest
of the game for us.”

On the
draw:
“I think their record is a bit unrealistic because they
played three more games than we have and I don’t think they are as good as
everyone thinks they are. They had a good run and they have good players but I
felt we lost the game they didn’t win it. We lost the points because I thought
we played well on the road it was a good game it was god for us it is really
disappointing to tie at the end but it was a good point against LA on the
road.”

On the team’s
performance:
“It is not a matter of winning or losing it is a matter
of playing and I thought we stayed with them toe to toe and at times we had the
ball more often and played well. It is not necessarily Western Conference and
Eastern Conference. This shows that we can play against any team and show we
should into any game thinking we are going to win.”

San
Jose Goalkeeper Jon BuschOn tonight’s
game:
“I thought it was a good game. I thought it was two good
teams going toe to toe. It was entertaining both ways obviously we got off to a
very good start played some good soccer there we chances both ways they are a
good team but not a team that we are scared of. I thought we played very well
and are unfortunate not to get out of here with three points we did what we need
to do to come into their place and almost take out three
points.”

On the team’s
performance:
“We got our two goals. I am disappointed in myself
obviously the guys worked hard to get me two goals and I thought on the second
one the ball ate me up a little bit and all I could do is keep it out but I
couldn’t get up to get on the rebound and I am disappointed in myself in that.
But other than that I think the guys played great. Like I said we had three
points for the taking but we will take one knowing that we could have gotten out
of here with three.”

San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Brandon
McDonaldOn his
goal:
“It feels good not necessarily scoring against my old
team but to put us up in the lead and give us a position to win the game and
take home the three points.”

On his role in the
team:
“There are a lot of characters on our team. My position
and my role on this team is to be someone to help defensively and [Sam] Cronin
is probably the guy in the front in the midfield that helps out more attacking.
My role is to sit there and help us secure our backline and come away with
victories.”

On scoring against his former
team:
“You want to come back and prove a point. It feels good
expressing yourself in front of the fans that supported you while you were here
and come away proving what you are able to do.”

Notes:• With the draw, the Galaxy are now 12-2-4 on the season and
remain alone in first place in the Western Conference. The Galaxy now
have 40 points and are 10 points clear of Real Salt Lake at the top of
the Western Conference and nine points ahead of Columbus for the best
record in MLS.• The Galaxy are the first team in MLS to register 40
points on the season.• LA is now unbeaten in their last 11 home
games, going 9-0-2 in those 11 games, dating back to a 6-3 home loss to
FC Dallas on September 12, 2009.• Bruce Arena made three changes to
the team that won 2-1 at D.C. United on Sunday, July 18, bringing Dema
Kovalenko, Leonardo and Michael Stephens back into the team. They
replaced Gregg Berhalter, Chris Birchall and A.J. DeLaGarza, who all
began the game on the bench.• Arena made just one change to 18-man
squad from the win at United, bringing Tristan Bowen onto the bench in
place of Alex Cazumba.• Kovalenko was making his first appearance in
an MLS match since April 1. After starting the first two games of the
season, he had missed the last three months with a right hamstring
strain. He played 60 minutes before being replaced by Tristan Bowen,•
Bobby Convey’s 2nd minute goal for the Earthquakes was the fastest goal
allowed by the Galaxy this season and just the third allowed by the
club in the first half. The last time the Galaxy allowed a goal inside
the opening two minutes of a game was on April 4, 2009 when Conor Casey
scored the second fastest goal in MLS history, tallying after just 16
seconds in a 3-2 Colorado win at The Home Depot Center.• The Galaxy
have now allowed a goal in the opening 10 minutes of four of their last
five regular season games against the Earthquakes.• Edson Buddle
tied the score at 1-1 in the 59th minute with his MLS-best 12th goal of
the season. He has now scored in each of the last two games and in six
of the seven home games that he has played in this year.• Nine of
Buddle’s 12 goals have come at The Home Depot Center.• Landon
Donovan and Todd Dunivant each assisted on the goal. For Donovan it was
his MLS-best 11th assist, while it was Dunivant’s first.• Dunivant
is the 11th different player to register an assist for LA this season.•
Of Donovan’s 11 assists, seven have come on goals by Buddle.•
Landon Donovan scored his third goal of the season and his first at The
Home Depot Center in the 90th minute.• That goal was the Galaxy’s
latest of the season. The last time that LA scored in the 90th minute or
later was on September 12, 2009 in a 6-3 loss to FC Dallas. Edson
Buddle scored that goal.• The Galaxy have now allowed a goal in each
of their last four regular season games. The last time LA allowed a
goal in four straight contests was from July 16 until August 15 last
season. LA went 2-1-1 in those four games, winning 3-1 at New York,
drawing 1-1 at Kansas City, winning 2-1 at New England and losing 2-0 at
home to Seattle.• The Galaxy went into halftime trailing 1-0. This
was the first time this season that the club trailed at the half. Coming
into the game, LA was 11-0-0 when leading at the half and 1-2-3 when
tied at the break.• The Galaxy allowed the game’s first goal for
just the third time this season. They are now 0-2-1 in those three
games.• LA came from behind to earn a point for the first time since
July 25, 2009 when they erased a 1-0 deficit to draw 1-1 at Kansas
City.• Prior to tonight’s game, the last time the Galaxy allowed
more than one goal in a home game was September 12, 2009 when they lost
6-3 to FC Dallas at The Home Depot Center.• Tonight’s game was the
Galaxy’s first game this season that they allowed a goal in each half.•
The attendance for today’s game was 17,712.